FAAN, Aviacargo Roadmap committee partners quarantine services on agro export

The new Directorate of Cargo Development Services at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) led the Aviacargo Roadmap committee on a courtesy call to the Headquarters of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS) in Abuja in a bid to increase agro exports.

Led by Lekan Thomas, a director at FAAN, the Team was hosted by Vincent Isegbe, Director-General, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), and his team.

The Director told the NAQS TEAM that the Minister created the Cargo Directorate to focus on the growth of air cargo in Nigeria to contribute its fair share to the Economy and move Nigeria’s position as part of the leading exporting nations in Africa.

The team, he said, came to NAQS because of the importance of the Agency in the new Vision for improved Agro Exports in Nigeria.

In his presentation Ikechi Uko, the coordinator of the Aviacargo Roadmap committee told the NAQS team that the committee has developed an Export Aviacargo Pathway that will form the Template for future Export through the Airports.

The new Pathway is a 5 Step Process that starts from the Farm. Any Produce meant for export has to come from a registered Farm. The Farm has to be registered by NAQS or the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

The second Step will be a registered Known Shipper who can aggregate and Consolidate.

The third step is a regulated agent who is licensed to a third Country as a KC3.

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The last Stage before export, is through a Handling Company that is also licensed to global Standards, very likely RA3.

NAQS will vet the goods at the handling Company along with NDLEA and Customs before the licensed airline.

With this pathway, produce can be traced and tracked, reducing rejects of Nigerian Agro Produce abroad.

Uko told the NAQS DG that there are identified gaps in the pathway that might be a problem.

The Gap Uko said is in the Logistics from Farm to the Airport.

The Logistics gap includes Cold Chain processes and contamination issues in Transporting produce from farm to Airport.

He said the conversion of unknown goods to known goods will rely on the licensing of agents at different levels of the Ecosystem.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.